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Despite Flak, Weather Channel Will Still Name Winter Storms

This winter, Hercules, Titan, Vulcan or Ulysses may clobber your town with snow, winds and disruption. If everything goes according to plan, they'll take Twitter by storm as well. At least, that's what the Weather Channel is banking on.

For the second year in a row, the news outlet will dole out names for winter storms, giving broadcasters, meteorologists, citizens and Twitter users an easy way to reference the event. However, the channel's initiative hasn't convinced its critics, and the national weather authorities and competing outlets refuse to endorse it.

"You can't talk about something if it doesn't have a name," said Bryan Norcross, a Weather Channel meteorologist. "When something significant happens, it wants to have a name."

The original idea for naming winter storm came in 2011, when Weather Channel employees started using Twitter to gather news and updates about weather-related events. However, they soon realized it was hard to aggregate tweets about winter storms because, unlike tropical storms or hurricanes that carry official names from the World Meteorological Organization, winter storms didn't have titles.

"Every tweet that is about something needs a hashtag, otherwise you can't find it. There is no good filtering system,” Norcross said.

However, not everyone likes the idea of naming winter storms. Critics say the Weather Channel's scheme creates confusion, and one year later, they haven't budged.

AccuWeather founder Joel Myers last year said the competing channel "has confused media spin with science and public safety," party because the scheme is not endorsed industry-wide.

The National Weather Service (NWS) didn't back the channel's initiative last year because a "winter storm's impact can vary from one location to another, and storms can weaken and redevelop, making it difficult to define where one ends and another begins."

Susan Buchanan, a spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the parent agency of the NWS, said the two agencies still have no position on the Weather Channel's naming scheme this year. And, referring to last year's statement, she added: "We do not comment on private sector weather products and services."

The American Meteorological Society (AMS) hasn't changed its stance either. Executive Director Keith Seitter said last year the team was surprised by the Weather Channel's move and had "no position" on the scheme. When Mashable asked Seitter about the society's stance this year, he maintained the AMS still has no position on the subject.

James Spann, an ABC meteorologist who was named broadcaster of the year by the NWS in 2012, said the current situation could lead to "total confusion" if the NWS or other broadcasters start using their own set of names. The solution, for him, is to have the AMS "lead the charge" and "decide if winter storm names is a good or bad idea." Then, the NWS should designate the names and develop guidelines on using them.

"I don't mind the idea of winter storms, but in my opinion it needs to be across the entire weather enterprise, not just one cable channel," Spann said. "We must be on the same page, or confusion will rule."

Yet, when asked whether the AMS had considered weighing this issue, Seitter said there has been "no official discussion."

Last year, according to Norcross, the main criteria was to name storms that would hit a city or impact a "significant number" of people, and if it the storms were truly "disruptive" — affecting travel plans or mass transportation, for example. This year, the outlet will rely more on the NWS' winter storm thresholds, which use certain measurable indicators when issuing warnings.

"In essence, we want a system that is in place to name the storms, as opposed to having a subjective component to it," he said.

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